The internet was under attack last night by the fastest-growing computer virus in history.
Worldwide systems were buckling after the ‘Sobig.F’ spread to 134 countries in just 96 hours, generating tens of millions of e-mails.
Experts fear it could increase the volume of electronic traffic by a staggering 60per cent, slowing the internet to a crawl.
It is believed to have cost British businesses alone hundreds of millions in lost orders and system crashes. The global cost will be immense.
Individual companies have been bombarded with millions of copies of the virus, while home users have seen their machines “jammed” by up to 6,000.
The PC World chain said tens of thousands of customers had brought in computers to be “cleaned” by technicians.
Experts say Sobig appears to have been written by senders of “spam” – unwanted junk e-mail – trying to find ways past internet filters which block their messages.
The new digital onslaught comes hard on the heels of two other major viruses, Blaster and Nachi. “This is the worst barrage of viruses in the history of computing,” said Graham Cluley of Sophos Anti-Virus.